The two sacred cows of the right
Endlessly growing economic activity, in which everyone is free to buy or sell whatever they like. That’s how we got into this mess; it’s not how we’re going to get out of it
There are many ways in which environmentalists disagree with the political right, but two fundamental ones really do prevent progress.
First is the almost universal requirement for a vibrant or strong, a healthy or flourishing economy. No matter how many ornate and positive words the manifestos use for it, we know what they actually mean is a growing economy. An economy that is 3% or 5% bigger this year than it was last. As many people have said, ‘Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist.’
Of course shareholders and investors would like to see endless growth of their businesses, but in a finite island like Jersey we have an excellent microcosm in which to see that physically it is absolutely not possible.
You may be able to grow intangible things like numbers in a computer, but you cannot endlessly sell more bread, plastic goods, cars and houses year after year for generations.
Yet in the past, this is exactly what our business leaders — via their friends in the civil service and the States Assembly — have insisted that they must indeed get on and do.
Second, we know as fact that if you don’t like some of the things in the shops, like chemically grown vegetables, plastic-wrapped ready-meals, or drinks full of artificial colours and sweeteners, then your course of action is simple: just don’t buy them. Conversely, if people want to buy a car that is far too huge for Jersey’s roads and to sit in it for two hours a day in traffic jams, pumping out toxic fumes, then it’s their choice and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. This second sacred cow of the right is the ‘free market.’
Of course, if you criticise it, they say it’s never actually been free enough, but that they are still actively campaigning to remove more of the namby-pamby red tape that protects some delicate snowflake — or critically endangered ecosystem — here or there.
I was told once that if I wanted to see more cycling in Jersey, I should open a bike shop. Put my money where my mouth was and import extra bikes to see who might buy them. At the same time, I should stop irritating States members and ministers by expecting the government to get involved in things that are none of their business.
This article appeared in the Jersey Evening Post on 26 April 2018
